A Posse Ad Esse

It has been a little crazy the last few weeks, but I'm starting to catch up, just to be hit again with another set of things. *laughs*

For the last week, I had my writing partner, demented_dee here on a visit that ended with her having to go home early for medical reasons that I'm still kind of on tetherhooks about. It will likely be all right, but... it's a little nervewracking.

This is also Jet's last week of school, the pool opened, I'm knitting like a madwoman, including a baby sweater, a pair of socks, and a self-designed shawl, all of which seem to have worked out all right.

So I'm cooking, walking, working out, and watching my DVD's of Justified with great satisfaction. I really am enjoying the series, the language, the depth of the characters, and the very real consequences of what law enforcement can be like. Everything from an officer having their weapon taken away after a shooting, to the lawsuits and trouble they can get into because of doing what they had to do to protect others. Add a huge slab of what it's like to have grown up in a county in rural Kentucky (with plenty of hints of what it might have been like for West, dee's character in our West and East) and I'm totally sold.

I also did my first stint as a full-blown liturgist yesterday during our church's Gospel Sunday. It was actually a hard one for me: 1 John 5:9-15, but it was, luckily, from The Message instead of the usual translations. I've always had trouble with this kind of passage where the implication is an literal "eternal life" with the acceptance of a Correct Doctrine and death otherwise. I really worked on what to emphasize, trying to pull in the reassurance rather than the condemnation, the admonishment to be "bold" and to have faith.

One bit of context is that on Gospel Sunday the true emphasis of the worship service is on the choir, on the really great gospel songs that they do for all the musical intervals. It's their last hurrah for the year, before taking the summer off, and it's always really good. I wore my silver Zoot Suit to be up front, and was utterly gratified when the choir wolf-whistled and cheered when I walked on stage. *laughs*

I do love our church.

After the service, a woman doing the usual 'hurry out of the worship at the end as I have something to get to' walk rushed by me where I stood after my pastor Rick outside the sanctuary door. She suddenly stopped, pivoted on one heel, and came back to me.

"I have to tell you," she said. "Your reading, it went right to the heart of me, touched me in a way I didn't expect, at all." She sounded a little shocked but in a good way. "I just had to let you know."

"Thank you," I said. "I appreciate knowing."

She nodded abruptly and hurried on her way.

And I was glad I made the effort to make the reading solid.

The Zoot often brings about mixed reactions, since, in effect, I am 'cross dressing'. The funny thing is that I seem to get more remarks and looks from the gay and queer members of our congregation than the straight supporters. It was one of a lesbian couple that, after church a few months back, said that she'd never seen a woman in a Zoot before, and I'd answered, "Well, now you have." There are five new gay men that have been visiting for the last few months, and I didn't even get a smile from them. One other lesbian lady was laughing when she said, "I'm so glad we're in a church where you can wear that up front." Whereas most of the straight folks were like, "How beautiful!" or "How handsome!" or "I love your suit..."

Admittedly, my gay pastor took it all in stride, but he's getting to know me a little better now. *laughs* And when I 'leveled' his stole, he said, "Well, yes, I'm never straight." And I grinned at him.

It's just intriguing for me to see and to watch what it's like to be in a church that is taking these steps to welcome and make us rainbow folks a part of their community. There was one rough teenager, whose a single man with a very young boy child, who was kind of unhappy about what 'rainbows now represent', and he just said to me that if my suit were yellow and I had green make up, I could be the Mask. *laughs*

You should have just smiled a creepily huge smile at the sourpuss that made the remark about your suit and said "S-MOKIN'!!" and walked away!

Your posts always make me feel like such a slacker, you are always so busy and involved! I don't know how you do it, but I do truly admire you. I lack both the energy and the organizational skills these days to do one tenth of what you do. I guess I did it at one time in my life, but looking back with the mindset I have now (and body I have now) it amazes me I ever pulled it off!

When you talk to DD, please convey my wishes for her good health and recovery from whatever is ailing her. I chatted with her for the first time a little in the last couple of weeks, and we friended each other. She seems a delightful and lovely person - and I can see how you two would be natural friends.